Ranger Mercenary Corps
The Ranger Mercenary Corps (or RMC for short) are a relatively large collection of Mercenaries, Bounty Hunters and in some cases Vigilantes currently based in the Omicron Lost system. They have a reputation for drinking, getting the job done and maintaining a small but significant status in the Omicrons especially. While the corps may have a dubious reputation to some people, Rangers do in fact hold themselves to a short but strict code of honor, which believes strongly in the freedom of Sirius and its citizens. The code also prevents any member of the RMC from taking a contract that involves the harm or death of innocent civilians. Any break in this code would be punished depending on the severity, although only one known break has occurred. Brief Synopsis: the RMC was founded in 694 A.S. by Warran Hawthorne, alongside 7 other fighter pilots. The original aim was to help corporations secure trade routes to the Omicrons... for a price. The group did however firmly believe in a set of beliefs which was fundamentally identical to the code of honour the Rangers still hold themselves to this day. The original pilots had extreme success in making profits guarding convoys and deep space miners capitalising on the rich Iridium deposits of the Edge Worlds, and made a fortune through this method. However, it was risky, and they knew they could not keep it up forever with just the eight of them despite having many years experience. They were well aware of the growing technology and therefore growing threat especially from factions such as the Corsairs, which had been the largest problem for the eight. This was further reinforced when they nearly met their untimely demise in 698 A.S. after a particularly dangerous dogfight with multiple Corsairs, which challenged and almost destroyed the Rangers despite the skills they had honed over four intense (but profitable) years. After careful deliberation in early 699 A.S., the original 8 Rangers decided to grow their small faction and expand to approximately 20 members by midway through that year. At this time they were operating two squadrons of ten with four of the original per squadron, and this increased profit from their escorting operations exponentially, while simultaneously reducing risk to their operation. By the end of 699 A.S. and the beginning of the new century, having massively capitalised on the rush to the Iridium resources of the Edge Worlds being one of the only experienced dedicated groups to run escorts to such a risky area, the RMC found themselves sitting on millions of credits without really knowing what to do with them. Inspired by their previous success in expanding, the original eight decided to do the same, but on a much larger scale. The organisation was to recruit up to 60 pilots, and to take contracts foraying into the Omegas and doing some in house escorting and other contracts in Rheinland and Kusari (Considered "easy money" to the pilots running these contracts, as the threat compared to the harsh Edge Worlds was mild). The organisation met extreme success in this manner, and continued to grow this way until the organisation offered services across Sirius and maintained a hold over the Omicrons 706 A.S. The original Code of Honour held by the original 8 pilots was always held very close to the newborn faction, and it maintained these and drilled them in to the new recruits from the moment they joined the corps. Every Ranger swears an oath to uphold it and to never break it. There is but one known example known of when this oath has been broken. In 706 A.S. one of the original eight pilots, a man by the name of Felix Fritz, took a contract from an unknown source that involved the murder of over three dozen innocent civilians. Fritz had been a long time friend of Hawthorne, who was mortified to find out that someone he trusted so absolutely would betray the very thing that they alongside the other six pilots had agreed on 12 years beforehand, and had held close to their hearts ever since. A six month manhunt had been triggered, with Hawthorne and his second-in-command Emily Asara in the lead. Emily was the highest scoring RMC Ace to date and had shown a talent for command, a trait recognised and appreciated in the now several-hundred-strong faction, she was strong willed, honest, and told people exactly what she meant. This contrasted Hawthorne's personality of being calm and calculating, and often preferring subtlety over outright action. Together the ranger leaders eventually tracked down and hunted Fritz who was hiding on Freeport 7 at the time. The fight that ensued when the two pilots (Who were alone, at Hawthorne's insistence) found him was legendary, with Fritz holding his own against his former comrades for a full half hour before Asara took the final shot of her career from close proximity. Her shot penetrated straight through the ship and set a chain reaction off in Fritz's modified, unstable powercore. The resulting explosion ended up killing both Fritz and Asara, and leaving Hawthorne badly wounded, requiring months of microsurgery and recovery. Hawthorne stepped down from his post after this event, and rumour says that he was a changed man after this, and he rarely spoke to anyone not just about that day, but about anything. He completely disappeared in 708 A.S. never to be seen again. Since then, there have been no known breaches in the code by any member of the faction, however this story has practically passed to legend, and is echoed in every ranger no matter how long they have been in the faction. Conflict with the BHG: This code of honour has also put them in to direct conflict with the Bounty Hunters Guild. The BHG disapprove of the RMC, and publicly claim that they "steal their business" and "sabotage and steal their designs", and that this is why the two have such a prominent rivalry in modern day sirius. However, the real conflict between the conflict originates at around 750 A.S. when the RMC were starting to make a serious name for themselves. The RMC had never had a particularly high opinion of the BHG, with many pilots being corrupt former criminals, or active criminals in some cases, but they had never sought out active war with them. The first shot was fired when an overzealous Bounty Hunter pilot stumbled across a lone Ranger gunboat returning to Gas Miner Okinawa to fix a fault in its left engine and to refuel. The bounty hunter in question was a paranoid individual named Marcus Callion, who had served 5 years in a mental asylum 10 years prior to this event and had a criminal record of manslaughter and armed robbery. For reasons unknown to this day, he charged the gunboat and opened fire on it. Naturally, the gunboat returned fire and seriously damaged Callion's ship, and the pilot realized his mistake and retreated. Even though the incident was technically an accident by an unstable individual, and not aided by the fact that the Rangers had lost the leadership of their surviving founders relatively recently in relation to this catastrophe, neither faction took it as such and a short but bloody war ensued. The factions were locked in 18 months of brutal conflict. While the BHG had superior numbers, they were often disorganized and lacked coordination, whereas the Rangers had been taught exactly these qualities. Despite both sides having advantages over the other, they cancelled each other out, and neither side really gained the upper hand. A year and a half later, both sides were worn out from all out conflict, and signed an armistice followed by a peace treaty. However, although the war is officially over and has been for a long time, skirmishes between bounty hunters and rangers have not been unheard of over the years. Nomad War: After the brief war with the BHG, the RMC had few conflicts with other factions outside the contracts they took for protection, assassination or sabotage. What the war with the BHG had produced now were experienced commanders who had been in a war before. Some of these Rangers were still with the RMC in high command by the time the Nomad War began. These men became invaluable when the Order came in contact with the RMC, looking for any help they could get. Having noticed the sudden change in behaviour from the houses themselves, although not knowing what the cause was, the RMC was easy to win over and pledged military support to the Order. This is where the commanders produced by the war with the BHG provided invaluable expertise, they ensured that the faction was properly outfitted and prepared for the first full conflict the corps had endured for just under fifty years. All fighters and ships were pulled from House Space, all of them set to rendezvous in the Omicron Lost system, which had become the home of the RMC. Due to their seclusion and lack of political authority outside the Omicrons, the RMC had been largely left untouched by the nomads, meaning they could use the full extent of their forces with little fear of pilots turning to the Wild. This provided the order with almost a thousand combat pilots and many more support crew, capital ship crews and so on. However, as the limited but powerful Ranger capital fleet was in transit to the Order, they were beset by Corsair bombers seeking vengeance for the losses caused by the RMC, and many of the RMC warships took heavy damage, With the remaining ships needed to provide escort to the damaged ships back to Asara Shipyard being constructed in the Omicron Lost system. As a result, none of their capital ships were available for use by the Order during the nomad war, although the RMCs fighters took part in the battle in Omicron Major, and helped to provide cover for Edison Trent as he activated the Hypergate, ending the Nomad war. However, the Order never fully forgave the Corsairs for the assault of the RMCs battle fleet, preventing valuable reinforcements to the Order. This later became an issue when relations began to sour between the Corsairs and Order. The RMC and Gallia: Relations between the RMC and Gallia are hostile, as the Corps look down on the Gallics for their slaughter of Bretonian civilians and annexation of the Leeds system. the BAF have hired the RMC to assist in the conflict against the gallics, and RMC forces are stationed in Bretonia to this day assisting the BAF where possible. However, whenever possible, gallic civilian casualties are to be avoided.